Sparrows in the Scullery

by Barbara Brooks Wallace

Overview

Colin Trevelyan, newly orphaned heir to his parents' fortune, is kidnapped in the night from his ancestral home and taken to the grim Broggin Home for Boys, where he is underfed, overworked, and destined for a short life in a deadly glass factory.

This story "immediately hooks readers, who will gobble up this satisfying fare," says School Library Journal.

"Fully realized Victorian melodrama that would make Dickens proud," says The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books.

A Junior Literary Guild selection and winner of the Mystery Writers of America EDGAR Award.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780595411559
Publisher:	iUniverse, Incorporated
Publication date:	11/14/2006
Pages:	164
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.38(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

Editorial Reviews

Gr 4-6--Set in 19th-century United States, this mystery immediately hooks readers. When 10-year-old Colley is kidnapped and brought to the Broggin Home for Boys, he finds himself in the middle of a nightmare. The two proprietors, Obadiah and Quintilla Crawler, make life miserable for all of the Broggin boys. Harsh words, backbreaking work, and inedible food are the norm. Eventually, Colley befriends his formerly hostile roommate and tries to discover why he was brought to the home. Reminiscent of Joan Aiken's The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (Yearling, 1987), the book is populated with characters who are either very good or horrible. Wallace writes well, balancing the educated dialogue of Colley with the course language of the street boys. A secret room, a pet rat, and near mishaps add to the intrigue. Although the ending is a little sweet, Wallace ties together most loose ends and includes some unsolved problems. Readers will gobble up this satisfying fare.--Mary M. Hopf, Los Angeles Public Library

School Library Journal

Wallace (Cousins in the Castle, 1996, etc.) transports readers back to 19th-century England, to the time when it was not uncommon for orphans to be sold to seemingly charitable homes where they were clothed and fed, but where they were often required to toil long hours in factories.

That's the horror that befalls once privileged, recently orphaned Colley Trevelyan, 11. The action takes off at a horse's gallop: After his parents are killed in a carriage accident, Colley is kidnapped and sold to the Broggin Home for Boys. There he is stripped of his name and put to work in a glass factory. It's a far cry from the servants and estate to which he's accustomed, but Colley becomes close to the other boys, and learns about friendship, teamwork, and survival. Wallace is deliberately Dickensian in her portrait of the home and the boys, yet the tale is full of hope: The boys find an unexpected savior, and readers will be borne along by the suspense to an exhilarating conclusion.

Kirkus Reviews